


Peter and the Sorcerer

by notjustmom



Series: After Titan [2]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Post-snap
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-29
Updated: 2019-01-12
Packaged: 2019-09-29 22:34:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,592
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17212088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notjustmom/pseuds/notjustmom
Summary: A possible conversation between Peter and Strange after the snap; Strange has managed to get them both back to the Sanctum, but Tony is left on Titan, much to Peter's displeasure... again this is more meta for myself until I figure things out.





	1. Chapter 1

“Mr. Stark. Please? Tony.” Peter waved his hand in front of Tony’s face and all too quickly understood that Tony believed he and everyone else besides himself and Nebula were dead.

“Doc?”

“Mr. Parker?” 

“Can’t you do something? Use your magic, let him know, that he isn’t alone? He hates being alone. I’m Peter, by the way, or Kid, he always called me Kid, I used to hate it. He was the only one who called me Mr. Parker.”

“Apologies, Peter, I was simply offering you the respect you deserve. I was barely able to get us back here, and to be honest -”

“What is it?” 

“It isn’t yet time for him to come home.”

Peter slumped down in the chair opposite Strange and looked around the Sanctum. “You mean I get to be here, wherever, whenever here is, and he has to be left on that planet? You should have let him die. You promised him. You swore you would let him die before you gave up the stone. You’re like everyone else, just someone else who lied to him.”

“Like you?”

“I never -”

“The ‘oh, it’s fake, I made it on youtube?’ crap wasn’t a lie?”

Peter rolled his eyes and pulled his knees up to his chin. “He knew it was a lie. He knew exactly where to find my disguise. I was afraid. No one else knew about me.”

“People knew,” Strange murmured.

“Outside of Ned no one I knew, knew. I didn’t know ‘people knew’ and I knew about Mr. Stark, of course I did, who didn’t? But, back then, I didn’t know what he wanted from me. Point I’m making, trying to make is that he would rather be dead than be stuck in space. You must know what happened in New York. It messed him up big time. Wait. He doesn’t even know if Ms. Potts is alive, she is, isn’t she?”

Strange nodded.

“Can we tell her at least, get someone to help him?”

“Tell me about him.”

“You’re just trying to change the subject.”

“Not really. Tell me what you know about him.”

“He’s an ass at times, but I know he cares about me. He wants - he wants a kid, a family, he’s making do with me until he has a real son.”

“You really think that’s true?”

Peter sat quietly for what may have been minutes or hours, even days, he wasn’t sure, time was different in this place. But eventually he shook his head. “No. He tried to - when I was turning to dust, he was trying to hold me together, when I couldn’t anymore. And it wasn’t because he didn’t want to be left alone, he honestly -.”

“The suit he built for you.”

“We spent months on the nanotech. Every day after school. He’s -” Even Strange had to smile at the grin that momentarily graced Peter’s face. “I know he’s a genius, Doc, but he’s - he’s not the same guy who built a robot in a cave. He didn’t want to be there. On the donut, on Titan. But he built the suits because he knew you were coming, Thanos was coming, but I don’t know if he can do it anymore, Doc. There’s gotta be some way we can help him. I can’t leave him there.”

“Someone is coming, Peter, they need time -”

“Doc.”

“He is going to be fine, he just has to have a bit of faith.”

Peter laughed ruefully, and met Strange’s green eyes. “Mr. Stark is many things, a man of faith is not one of them. He doesn’t believe in anyone but himself, and I think even that belief is fading. You know something, but you’re not going to tell me.” He narrowed his eyes at the sorcerer and Strange had the odd feeling of being seen by something stronger than himself for a moment.

“Peter.”

“Tell me.” Strange knew at that moment that Stark had chosen his student even better than even he had known, or it was just possible he had realized. He nodded, cleared his throat, and breathed a sigh of relief as the cloak wrapped about him a bit tighter.

“The only way I saw - for us to win, was to defeat Thanos before the snap happens -”

“It already happened, Doc.”

“In Tony’s present timeline, yes, there are other timelines, parallel to his, it had to happen in his now first before -”

“Shit. The Multiverse.”

Strange stared at him for a moment, then blinked at the odd young man in front of him, who had just become less odd and more intriguing. “You know about the Multiverse?”

“I’ve always had, well, what I thought were dreams, even before the spider got me, started when I was, I dunno, five, mebbe. When I met Tony, I began to see snapshots of events. I knew certain events were going to happen, but they didn’t make sense, there was no context for any of it, until after the thing with Cap blew up, so I didn’t know what it meant, and I couldn’t tell him, because I couldn’t make sense of it. As you said, things happen in their own time, for better or for worse.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> and the second bit...

Peter cleared his throat and Strange watched him become someone, something else, unlike anything or anyone he had ever seen before. He or it, or they, he wasn't sure precisely, answered in one voice, and yet it was clear it was many voices in that one, "I was meant to, we were meant to help him. Stark. It wasn't until the incident with the spider that we had a way, that we had something he would recognize as something interesting enough to get in touch with us."

Strange sat forward in his chair and closed his eyes. "You are...?"

"Does it matter?"

"No. Not really, but you say you were meant to help Stark."

"Obviously we failed in this timeline, because, he's where he is, and we're here safe and warm, in whatever timeline we're in here. We need to go back there, at least let him know Ms. Potts is okay, that we're not really in the dust on that dead planet with him. You can try to stop me and fail or you can help us."

Stephen spent a millisecond considering his options and opened a portal to Titan without saying another word.

"Wise choice, Dr. Strange." Peter nodded sharply at him then disappeared through the portal, closing it behind him.

"So... Ancient One, you forgot to tell me about someone or something I should have known about."

"You weren't ready to meet them until now."

"Them?"

 

"Mr. Stark."

Tony raised his head and looked up into Peter's eyes. Peter, but not Peter, and he saw what he should have seen the day he first saw the YouTube videos.

"Kid?"

"Yeah. I'm okay. Strange is okay, I don't know about the others. I do know that Pepper is safe. Worried about you, but safe."

Tony nodded. "I figured it wasn't over. Is there a play, or do I just -"

"This isn't your end, Stark."

"Why not, Parker? Somehow I know that's not your name, but I'm not gonna call you kid again. I'm just tired, Parker."

"I know you're tired. Tired isn't the word. I only have a minute, Strange allowed me time - time, such a small word for such a ludicrously complicated and yet simple thing, to tell you that you still have something to live for. I shouldn't tell you this, it's a question of keeping the timelines so they won't engage with each other, but you have earned the right to know. You were right, your dream about Pepper, and you will have time, time with her and Morgan, you just have to have faith, Stark."

"Faith. Right, I think I knew a Faith once, tall, blonde, decent engineer..."

"Tony. You aren't alone. You were never alone. Not as a child, not when you came close to ending it all at MIT, not in the cave in Afghanistan, not in the wormhole, or Sokovia, on your best days, your worst days, and those days in between. I think you've always known that, it's why you never stop. It's why you never give up. The little voices in your head, yeah, you know what I'm talking about. You thought you were crazy. But what made you different, your recklessness, your indifference to your own well-being, your ability to think beyond the box, in ways no one else ever has before, it’s all you; but you’ve had a bit of help when you needed it. It's why you created Jarvis and F.R.I.D.A.Y so the voices had a name, you gave us a name. You aren't alone now, and this time, help is coming for you, you don't have to save yourself this time.”

“Parker?”

“We became Peter so we were a form you could accept, a being you could teach, and learn from. We will continue to be Peter once we are home, and you won’t remember this conversation. Peter will still be Peter.”

“Can I see you, who you really are?”

“No.”

Tony shrugged and laid a hand on Peter’s shoulder. “I’m glad you’re in one piece, Parker, can you let Pepper know I’m okay?”

Peter nodded. “Just a bit of faith, Stark, help is on its way.” He rolled his eyes at the portal as it slowly appeared. “I have to go. Just remember, you didn’t fail. This was always the way it had to go.”


End file.
